Desire Petroleum confirms dry well on Dawn/Jacinta prospect

Stockopedia

Jan. 4, 2011, 2:44 AM

Falkland Islands oil and gas explorer Desire Petroleum (LON:DES) confirmed this morning that it had failed to find oil anywhere in its latest well. The 25/5-1 well on the Dawn/Jacinta prospect was drilled to a total depth of 1,697 metres in pre-rift sediments but the Dawn prospect encountered no hydrocarbons. Last week, the company reported that the shallower Jacinta prospects had also failed to encounter any significant oil. The well is now set to be plugged and abandoned with gas shows around 1,434 metres. Desire noted that the lithology in the section from 1,313 to 1,697 metres was predominantly claystone and good quality sandstone with 71 metres of net reservoir based on initial log analysis. Wireline logging and abandonment operations will now be completed and the Ocean Guardian rig will then go to Desire's partner in the region Rockhopper Exploration (LON:RKH) to drill one or two wells, subject to regulatory approval, before returning to Desire to drill a well at a location still to be finalised and subject to regulatory approval. The Dawn well was testing a significant fault block at the southern margin of the main basin, some 28 km from previous well control, with primary reservoir targets in the syn-rift and pre-rift. These targets are stratigraphically older than the reservoirs in the East Flank play. Desire said the implication of the well results for remaining prospectivity in this part of the basin will be assessed once the new data has been integrated and all post-well studies are completed.